Understanding ABAP Dictionary

Build your flexible, consistent, and reusable SAP database with me through practical exercises. If you want to get familiar with the concept of Domains, Data Elements, Structures, Table Types, Database Tables, Views, Maintenance Dialogs, Two-Level Domain concept or Foreign Key Relationships, and you want to see them working in a real SAP system, then this course is for you.

Course info

Rating

(36)

Level

Beginner

Updated

Jul 10, 2015

Duration

4h 14m

Description

As you complete this course, you will acquire the necessary knowledge to plan and construct ABAP Dictionary objects in your SAP system, and you will be able to create and manage a central meta-data repository for your database that reduces the redundancy, the maintenance costs, and improves the efficiency. After the course, you can apply this knowledge whether you work on a simple in-house development, or a complex project. To understand the concept of the ABAP Dictionary in every detail, we will go through its objects one by one, discuss their roles in the system, and I will demonstrate that how to build them up during the exercises.

About the author

Alex is an ABAP Developer and Trainer with over 6 years of experience. He
is a member of Expertise-Team, a consulting, training, and software
development company (expertise-team.com), a group of SAP professionals
developing in SAP Business Warehouse, Business Objects systems, programming
with ABAP and delivering Mobile solutions.

Section Introduction Transcripts

ABAP DictionaryHi. This is Alex Gonczy, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. Using ABAP dictionary we get the nice and user-friendly UI for maintaining our database objects, we get to center our metadata repository where we can manage our data definitions, we are able to ensure the data integrity and consistency among the different entities, and we are able to decrease the implementation and maintenance costs. We are reusing existing definitions, and thanks to the centralized maintenance. In this module, we are going to talk about the role of the ABAP dictionary, its containing elements, and we are going to check each of them in the system as well. At last, we are going to take over the development workflow of the course. First, let's talk about the role of the ABAP dictionary.

DomainHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. In this module I'm going to introduce you to the basics of the two-level domain concept, we are going to talk about how we can decrease the development costs, and how we can ensure data or metadata consistency thanks to this concept. Then in the demo section we are going to create tons of domains such as with a specific value range or with date data type or with decimal data type or with CHAR data type. At last, using your newly acquired knowledge, you are going to create some of them individually with the help of these definition cards. First, let me talk about the basics of the two-level domain concept.

Data ElementHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. In this module I'm going to introduce you the other participant of the two-level domain concept, the data elements, and then we are going to talk about the development workflow that we are going to follow in the demo section. Then in the demo section we're using the existing domains that we have created in the previous module. We are going to create some data elements together. And at last, using your newly acquired knowledge, you are going to create the rest of the data elements individually with the help of these definition cards. First, let me talk about the data element itself.

StructureHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. In this module I'm going to introduce you the first complex data type in the ABAP Dictionary, the structures. Then we are going to talk about the different type of structures and their specifications. After that, we are going to talk about should we define our structures locally in our ABAP programs or globally in the ABAP Dictionary, and we are going to talk about the development workflow that we are going to follow in the demo section. Then in the demo section, reusing the existing data elements that we created in the previous module, we are going to create a structure together, and then using your newly acquired knowledge you are going to create the rest of them individually with the help of these definition cards. Alright, first let me talk about the structure itself.

Table TypeHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. In this module we are going to talk about the table types, but in order to understand the role of the table type in the ABAP Dictionary first I'm going to introduce you the runtime object called internal table. Then we are going to discuss how we can define the line type of a table type, what are the differences among the various access modes, and how we can define the keys for a table type. Then to summarize that we have learned up to now, we are going to talk about how to use the different data types like data element, structure, and table type in our ABAP programs. Next we will go through the development workflow and talk about what kind of objects we are going to create in the demo section. Then in the demo section first we are going to create an Orders, and at last an Order Items table type. Alright, that was a short introduction about what we are going to do in the next few minutes. Now there is nothing left than talk about our other complex data type called table type.

ViewHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. In this module, first I will introduce you what the views are, then we will go through their attributes one-by-one, then we will check what type of views we have in our ABAP Dictionary, and we will talk about the development workflow. In the demo section, first we will create the database view together for displaying the orders of our customers. Then, using this knowledge, you will create another view for displaying the different addresses individually in the system. Alright, that's what we will cover in the next few minutes. If you are ready, first let's talk about what the views exactly are.

Maintenance DialogHi. This is Alex Gonczy again, and welcome back to Understanding ABAP Dictionary. Now we arrive to our closing module where we will talk about a very useful tool named Table Maintenance Generator. Then we will go through on its modification options one-by-one. Then we will talk about our last development workflow. In the first demo section we will generate a maintenance dialog together for the table Author. Then, using this knowledge, you will generate another 10 maintenance dialogs individually in the system. In the second demo section I will show you a transaction where we can maintain our tables, and we will fill up the table Author together with some sample data. Then, using this knowledge, you will fill up another 10 tables individually in the system. Alright, that's what I can offer you in the next few minutes. If you are ready, let's talk about the tool that enables us to maintain our tables in an easy way.